This has become an issue with me as well, and the channeling that happens if I don’t have enough time to fix it come feed time.
Good input everyone
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This is what I’m looking at for this fall 
Divided by like 10, lol, but…
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Aside from bulk trying to save money it was def the hydrophobic shit with peat that encouraged my building and using coir instead for the water retention.
If u make compost teas adding humic acid can help break down the peat and have it not be so hydrophobic but still is a pain in the ass. I just cringe when I see someone pulling out a bale of peat or a bag of promix putting together a soil mix
My recipe don’t get any simpler of 50% compost, 25 % coir, 25% perlite or lava rock(I use both) and 2 cups of Dr earth and do compost teas to keep it all happy
500 gallons or 50 gallons, either way it’s cheap with EXCELLENT results for trouble free soil organics
Peat can also swing ph all the way down to 5, coir is neutral at 7 so u don’t have to load it down with lime to balance it, the compost is typically acidic enough that it lands right in the sweet spot of 6.2-6.5
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Any bag at the garden supply that looks decent and isn’t overpriced 
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And the Dr earth I keep seeing incredible results, it’s probly good ImGetting a little “bored” chasing numbers with jacks 321
I like jacks for ease of use, but I’m kind of over this cal mag stuff and how feeding dirt has major advantages over reducing fractions on paper.
And the fucking channeling of the peat? Who knows what’s going where, lol
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Ditch the peat and ditch all the wood chips!
Well when u look at the ingredients of Dr earth it’s a pretty balanced meal package with microbe innoculants! Really just can’t go wrong with it
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yeah I prefer pumice and volcanic whatcha-whosit but it aint rocket science 
what’s good for the pepper is good for the pot
Ya I’m a fan of lava rock too, doesn’t dust like perlite. Only reason I ran perlite on the last build was price point getting 14 bags for 100 bucks, was to good a deal to pass up
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And you can get it almost anywhere
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Just the general veggie and herb, I’ve noticed the pink flower girl isn’t as easy to come by
Indoors I use Sunshine Mix #4 ammended with gypsum and dolopril. Feeding bottled nutes.
Outdoor I make my own soil each season , recycling the used indoor sunshine mix into my soil every season. Then I ammend the recycled indoor and outdoor soils , adding back gypsum, dolopril, composted sheep manure, chunky perlite and steamed bonemeal.
I don’t use recycled soil indoors but I do in the greenhouse. I have never done a soil analysis but my plants seem to like the mix. I run a very short season by light dep so I just keep things simple.
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I have a bunch of landscaping places around me and they’ll usually hook it up cheap for lava rock if you have any near you. They just have huge piles of it and all sorts of other rocks and stuff.
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Surprisingly our nurserys /landscape centers out here called star nursery don’t carry lava rock at all, not even in the bulk for decorative rock. Don’t understand why cuz with az legalizing I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s looked for it. I have to get it at Lowe’s or home Depot in vigoro brand for 5 bucks per .5 cu ft bag which gets pricey, about the same shelf price as perlite by volume
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Yeah, I had to call a few to find some. Some only had the painted stuff. Seems like it would be really popular for landscaping. Feel like I see it all over in yards near the beaches.
Well I don’t understand why more ppl don’t use it for soil mixes, perlite flies off their shelves and lava rock last longer over the years. Perlite floats to the top, blows away, crumbles, dissolves down to nothing and my lava rocks are still there and haven’t changed. I recycle my soil every grow and makes me wonder at what point I need to add more and how much on 1100 gallons of soil
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Now I’m going to save my coco from this run and try coco in my soil mix instead of peat or a mixture of peat and coco. Coco is probably a lot easier thinking about. This and the thread by @McShnutz has my interest. Thanks for sharing!
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Kick the peat to the curb bro, it will be the best thing u ever did, the last 500 gallons I made I was coir based and it’s made my waterings much easier even though it got mixed in with the other half of peat based stuff. I’m gonna build more soil hopefully in Feb and gonna continue to use coir and no peat again so things should only get better
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I usually work mjbizcon load out each year and it’s insane the amount of coir bricks and soils that get thrown out, I fill my car the fuck up! Curious what Ill snag this year
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I run jacks 20-20-20 and blossom booster . I’ve tried other salts, but always turned back to Jack’s for its simplicity and ease of use. Plants tell me they’re happy with it . Actually now that I think of it, I haven’t had too many plants that don’t like it and if they do, they’re out of the tent don’t even f**k around with them.
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